COMPULSIVE GAMBLERS: DIFFERENCE OF OPINION

By JACK CAVANAUGH

Published: January 11, 1987

DR. MARVIN STEINBERG was neither amused nor pleased when a checkout clerk at a supermarket in Hamden tried to sell him a $1 lottery ticket while giving him his change.

To Dr. Steinberg, a psychologist of Hamden, it was a classic example of how the state had gone too far in trying to get more people to gamble.

''I complained to J. Blaine Lewis,'' chief of the State Lottery, ''to complain about what I thought was an intrusive tactic, and he told me he thought that what they were doing was a positive thing,'' said Dr. Steinberg, who is president of the Connecticut Council on Compulsive Gambling, one of 10 nationally recognized antigambling groups in the state.

Even though revenues from gambling in the state have doubled in the last five years, the Division of Special Revenue, which administers legalized gambling, is trying to draw greater interest to the lottery through a stepped-up advertising campaign that will have cost $4.2 million by the end of the fiscal year next June 30. That would be an $800,000 increase over last year.

Some advertisements proclaim, ''You can't win if you don't play.''

What the state has failed to point out, according to Dr. Steinberg, is that if some people play the lottery or other legal gambling, they can become compulsive gamblers.

''I think the state has failed to own up to the fact that legalized gambling can lead to compulsive gambling,'' he said. ''They should be providing warnings that gambling in any form can be dangerous, at least to a minority of the people who engage in it.

''And they should be spending more money to deal with compulsive gamblers. Even 10 percent of the $4 million being spent on advertising the lottery could provide $400,000 to a group such as ours, which relies entirely on private donations, whereas in Massachusetts, the Council on Compulsive Gambling is funded by unclaimed lottery winnings that amount to about $500,000 a year.

''Meanwhile, here in Connecticut, they perpetuate the myth that the lottery is a safe form of gambling, which it's not, since there is no such thing.''

''We don't think compulsive gambling is a paramount problem in Connecticut,'' a spokesman for the Special Revenue Division of the Department of Revenue Services, William K. Seymour, said. ''And we think it would be ludicrous to warn people, and Dr. Steinberg knows that.

''If you're going to warn people about gambling, then maybe we should put warnings in all the liquor stores, in the pharmacies and even in the bookstores, where we can warn people that reading may be dangerous to your eyes. If and when it does become a serious problem, perhaps some kind of legislative action should be taken. But it hasn't reached that point at all.''

Mr. Seymour did say, however, that the gaming agency had taken some steps against gambling abuse. He said signs had been posted at some gambling sites that read, ''Bet With Your Head, Not Over It.'' In addition, he said both lottery brochures and Teletrack programs contained material suggesting that people with gambling problems call Gamblers Anonymous at 777-5585. The telephone number for the Connecticut Council on Compuslive Gambling is 453-1729.

No one knows how many compulsive gamblers are in Connecticut. Most experts say the number usually rises considerably in states where gambling is legalized.

A study of legalized gambling in Connecticut released last July estimated that less than 0.5 percent of the people 18 years and older in the state can be considered compulsive.

Dr. Steinberg noted that the study, by David Cwi & Associates of Baltimore, was based on 1,230 telephone interviews.

''First of all, compulsive gamblers lie, so it's very unlikely that they're going to tell the truth during a survey,'' he said. ''Secondly, they interviewed 2,400 people at different gambling places in the state, which showed a much higher rate of compulsive gambling than the telephone surveys, but which were not included in the report released by the state.''

The interviews, Dr. Steinberg said, showed that the number of people surveyed who admitted they were compulsive ranged from 11 percent at the New Haven Teletrack to 5 percent at the Plainfield greyhound track.

Of those surveyed at other legal gaming sites, 7 percent at the three jai-alai frontons and 6.1 percent at the 14 offtrack betting parlors admitted they were compulsive, the survey showed, according to Dr. Steinberg.

''Even if the 0.5 percent figure was accurate, that would mean there were about 8,000 compulsive gamblers in Connecticut,'' he said. ''If we were talking about a contagious disease, that would be considered an epidemic. Yet, the state says there's no problem.''

Dr. Steinberg also the lottery advertising was somewhat deceptive. ''They talk about 'playing a dream' and how your chances of winning are 1 in 30,' '' he said. ''Actually, what they're talking about are your chances of winning $3 on a $1 bet.''

He was referring to the number of people winning the smallest prizes in the twice-weekly 40-number Lotto game.

Since gambling was legalized in 1972, it has sent $1.3 billion into the General Fund, including $906.6 million from the lottery, according to Mr. Seymour.

The revenues for the fiscal year that ended last June 30 totaled $234.1 million, a record and an increase of $42 million over the previous year. Of that, $190.8 million was generated by the lottery. By comparison, as recently as 1982, overall revenues totalled $112.8 million, less than half last year's figure.

Despite the continued increase in revenues, owing largely to the expansion of the lottery, Mr. Seymour said the state foresees ''a slowdown in the wagering dollar.''

''Surveys show that more and more people are traveling to Atlantic City casinos and that the recreational dollar is being spread out further,'' he said. ''We would like to continue to grow, or at least keep our revenues constant.''

Revenues decreased slightly last year at the Plainfield Greyhound Park and the Milford Jai-Alai Fronton, while increasing 20 percent at the Bridgeport fronton and remaining the same at the Hartford fronton. O.T.B. revenues rose slightly, from $18.8 million to $18.9 million.

To cope with compulsive gambling, Dr. Steinberg has suggested that the state set aside a percentage of revenues and all unclaimed lottery winnings and assess a fee on the 3,000 lottery vendors.

''We're already begun to discuss these possibilities with individual legislators and the General Assembly's Public Safety Committee,'' he said.

The state allocates $150,000 a year to the Compulsive Gambling Treatment Center in Bridgeport, part of the Department of Mental Health. The money comes from the frontons, the Teletrack and the dog track.

The executive director of the center, Patricia Nere, said 350 compulsive gamblers had been treated at the center since it opened in May 1982. She said that was an infinitesimal proportion of the problem gamblers.

Five social workers give in-patient and out-patient care. The workers also operate satellites in Danbury on Tuesdays and Thursdays and in Hartford on Tuesdays.

Ms. Nere said it was difficult to say whether legalized gambling had been a factor for the gamblers at the center.

''Compulsive gamblers like to externalize and are always blaming someone for their addiction,'' she said. ''It's the-devil-made-me-do-it attitude. But it's my belief that compulsive gamblers are always going to find a place to bet.''

Most of the people who have been treated, 15 percent of them women, have gambling debts from $15,000 to $20,000, she said.

''One man, who had been a $45,000-a-year nursing-home administrator, had gone through hundreds of thousands of dollars,'' Ms. Nere said. ''And by the time he came in, he was living in the woods with only the clothes on his back. He had literally lost everything - his wife, his three kids, his job, everything. He came in for a year, and we have no idea what happened to him after that.''

Ms. Nere said she had tried to persuade the state to advertise the program at gaming sites.

''We came up with a great poster, she said, ''that showed a man, looking downcast, leaving an O.T.B. parlor, with the words, 'Tired of Losing? Call the Compulsive Gamblers Treatment Program at 579-6934.'